This disclosure describes unique powered and manual sharpening means using abrasives to rapidly create a highly effective cutting edge on knives and similar cutting blades. Much has been written about means to create extraordinarily sharp edges on knives by creating geometrically perfect facets on each side of a knife edge that meet with high precision to create edges only a few microns in width. Further advances have been made in the old art of steeling an edge using modern technology to create highly reproducible micro-serrated edges along an already sharpened edge. This disclosure is about a unique and highly effective knife edge structure and more specifically about novel sharpening means to create such structure.
In spite of the technical advances of the past 20 years, there remains a lot of art involved in creating a perfect cutting edge. Indeed the perfect edge for cutting one particular food or material can be judged to be very different from the ideal edge geometry for cutting another food or material. Further the optimum edge for cutting is dependent on whether the user is moving the blade with a cutting stroke or shearing stroke. A geometrically perfect edge is better for a shearing action as with an axe while a less perfect edge populated with unique edge irregularities has been shown by the inventors to perform better with a slicing stroke. The nature of those irregularities, their size, and population has been found to effect importantly the ease of cutting a wide variety of materials especially those of a fibrous or semi-fibrous nature.